A small, thin old woman with graying hair opened the door from inside.
First, she saw Yuan Su standing in the doorway, soaked to the skin, and her brows drew together in a habitual frown.
Then her gaze shifted to Pu Yu beside him, carrying a suitcase, her eyes and the tip of her nose red, looking bedraggled and pitiful.
"Who are you looking for?" Grandma's voice was wary and appraising.
"Grandma," Pu Yu hastily raised her head and tried to force a smile, but it looked more miserable than crying. "I, I'm Pu Yu... My mom was Lin Qian... She used to send you letters..."
The girl was so nervous that her words came out jumbled.
Something flickered in Li Suhua's eyes as she studied her carefully. Her gaze lingered on the old suitcase, and her frown deepened.
The old woman turned down the corners of her mouth and spoke stiffly:
"Lin Qian's daughter? What are you doing here?"
"You were doing perfectly well in the city. Why come to this poor backwater to suffer? Did your father send you?"
The barrage of questions left Pu Yu bewildered.
Her tangled thoughts churned through her mind, and she had no idea where to begin.
Li Suhua looked at her pitiful state, then glanced at Yuan Su, who stood beside her like a wooden post. In the end, she gave a helpless sigh.
She stepped aside to clear the doorway, her tone still sharp and harsh:
"What are you standing there for? Want to get sick in the rain and make an old woman nurse you both?"
Without waiting for Pu Yu to answer, she turned and tottered into the house, muttering under her breath all the while, "...Honestly... Not one of you gives me a moment's peace... Leaving a comfortable life in the city just to come here and suffer..."
Pu Yu stood frozen, unable to tell whether she had been welcomed or turned away.
Only when Yuan Su reminded her flatly, "Aren't you going in?"
Did she snap out of it, hastily lift her heavy suitcase, and clumsily step over the rather high threshold.
Grandma's courtyard was much tidier than the one next door. Persimmons hung swaying in the rain, as though nodding to her in greeting.
Pu Yu followed Grandma into the main room.
Her wet shoes left a few blurred prints on the clean cement floor.
She stopped awkwardly, remembered how the boy had pounded on the door, and instinctively turned back to thank him.
But the courtyard was empty.
The boy with that cool, imposing presence had slipped away without her noticing.
"What are you looking at?" Li Suhua's voice came from behind her, tinged with impatience.
Pu Yu hurriedly shook her head. "N-nothing."
Grandma gave her no further attention and headed to the little kitchen on the other side of the courtyard.
Pu Yu stood quietly where she was, not daring to move, and discreetly looked around the place that might become her refuge.
The main room was simple and neat, with a dark square dining table in the center. An old-fashioned sewing machine against the wall was covered with floral fabric, with scraps of cloth and sewing supplies beside it.
There was a small room on either side, east and west, both with their doors shut.
Before long, Grandma came out carrying a floral bowl and set it on the table.
"Sit down and eat."
Steam rose from the noodles in clear broth, topped with a fried egg browned lightly at the edges.
Pu Yu sat on the edge of the wooden bench, fighting the sting in her eyes. "Thank you, Grandma."
Li Suhua picked up her needle and thread and resumed her work, asking without really looking up, "Why come here instead of staying in the city and studying?"
Pu Yu tightened her grip on her chopsticks. "My dad... and my stepmom wanted to marry me off for the bride price."
The old woman gave a cold laugh, heavy with the sorrow of someone who had seen too much. "He certainly learned every bit of that rotten 'daughters are a waste of money' thinking from his own parents!"
"And then?" Li Suhua did not ask about the proposed marriage, as though she had already guessed most of it. "They just let you leave? Pu Zhiming agreed?"
"I told them that if they wouldn't let me study, I'd go to the factory management and make a scene at my little brother's school. I had nothing to lose. They did."
After hearing that, Li Suhua stopped what she was doing altogether.
She raised her head and carefully studied the granddaughter before her, who looked so fragile.
The girl's eyes were still red and her face pale, but in her gaze was the desperate resolve of someone driven to the brink.
Li Suhua wanted to scold her some more, but in the end, she swallowed the words.
Only after Pu Yu finished eating did she ask with a frown, "I remember your mother had a younger sister, didn't she? Your aunt won't look after you either?"
Pu Yu shook her head, a trace of bitterness touching her lips.
"She was the one... who introduced me to the boss's son."
Li Suhua stared at Pu Yu for a few seconds, then suddenly tossed the ball of thread onto the table, her movement edged with suppressed anger.
"What a sin!"
"A pack of heartless wretches!"
Pu Yu's eyes stung. She pulled from her pocket the letter whose edges had softened in the damp and whose writing had blurred, then held it out with trembling hands, her voice choked with tears:
"Before my mom passed away, she told me that if I ever had nowhere to go, I should come and ask you to take me in."
"She said you had a softer heart than anyone, Grandma. You said you'd never have anything to do with us again, but you still made me little clothes with the words 'safe and sound' embroidered on them. She also said she'd always believed you had your reasons for what happened between you and my dad back then..."
Li Suhua froze, her stooped back seeming to bend a little further.
After a long while, she reached out and took the letter with the address written on it. "Then what do you plan to do from now on?"
"I want to study, Grandma." Pu Yu looked at her earnestly, as though clutching her last lifeline. "You won't have to worry about tuition or living expenses. I'll only stay for a year. Once I get into college, I'll leave."
"And later... when I have a job, I'll make sure to take good care of you!"
She hurried to promise her, a faint flush rising in her cheeks with emotion.
Li Suhua remained silent for a while. Without a word, she picked up the empty bowl from the table, went to the water vat in the courtyard, scooped out some water, and began washing it.
The water splashed, accompanied by her low murmurs, as though she were talking to herself:
"Hmph, easy for you to say. Do you think getting into college is that simple?... And taking care of me? I'm an old woman. I don't need that!"
She scrubbed the bowl rather forcefully, as though sulking at someone.
Pu Yu's heart sank little by little, and her fingers curled anxiously.
Yet when Grandma set the clean bowl upside down to drain and turned around, wiping her hands on a dry cloth, she said:
"Get up early tomorrow. If the rain stops, I'll take you to the high school in town and ask how to arrange a transfer."
Meeting Pu Yu's eyes, which had instantly lit up, she added in her habitually critical tone, "Change out of those wet clothes right now. Don't get sick and make us miss going tomorrow. I don't have all that spare time to wait for you."
Pu Yu froze. Then immense joy surged through her like a warm current.
She nodded hard, her voice catching with excitement. "Okay! Thank you, Grandma. I'll go change right now!"
The rain outside the window no longer seemed so cold.
The damp little town, the humble old house.
At that moment, they finally opened a narrow crack of hope to her.
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